Once upon a time, Barry and Levon had $240, and that bought…a lot of puddin’. But, what if they had $600? That would just be too ridiculous to comprehend. How I Spent My Stimulus takes a look at what Americans are blowing Bush’s $152 billion economic stimulus package on (note to our international readers: click here to learn more). From carabiners to train tickets, an extra few hundred dollars in the average taxpayer’s pocket opens up a whole new world of conspicuous consumption. So send in your pic or video of 600 lbs of dog food, three nights at a Westin Hotel, or, gasp, 150 gallons of gasoline. When the money is free, there’s no wrong answer.

There’s some venture capitalists who’re ready, willing and able to throw their money at whatever crackpot idea that comes their way. Then, there’s the kids with the crackpot ideas who think it’s okay to pitch anyone, anywhere, anytime for their money. As a result, you have a giant freakin’ mess of bad manners, products and attitudes. Nobody is more aware of this than entrepreneurs Andrew Hyde of StartupWeekend and Matt Emmi from OneButtonTouch. Hearing one too many bad pitches (and a rather unfortunate incident in a bar) at the StartupWeekend in Bloomington, Hyde and Emmi figured they could develop, in entirety, a company from start to finish on a single plane ride. After a game of rock, paper, scissors, the two to fleshed out the idea, built it on WordPress and voila, VC Wear was born. Each shirt comes at a price that only a venture capitalist could afford love — $100 a piece — and the option’s open to whomever’s ready to buy the company for a sweet $100K. Ladies and Gentlemen, Get your Amex Black cards ready!

If your New Year's resolution involves saving money, but the prospect of opening a savings account doesn't sound at all appealing; perhaps you just need to start small. May we suggest a piggy bank? Ah yes, remember when you were a child putting away all of your pennies for a rainy day so that one day you could purchase that yo-yo you had your eye on? Well, now you can relive those days and channel your inner child with Urban TrendHK's Hungry Bank. This adorable oinker has a motion sensor that activates the mouth to chew any size coin until it is swallowed. It even makes piggy noises as it puts away your pesos into its potbelly — so go ahead quarantine your quarters for the next bout of inclement weather or whenever your rent is due.

Among my contemporaries, there seems to reside a belief that it is hard to make a good thing happen; good ideas exist by the bucketful, but the initiative to turn those ideas into something graspable exists in far smaller quantities. This is why most people hover over coffee tables with good friends and talk about doing good things… then promptly forget about it. The ideas are there, the passion is there, but the initiative…well, the initiative takes a little bit of its own initiative.

Assuming the initiative is found, the next step calls for action, which then calls, more often than not, for money — which there isn't very much of, it seems (and which, incidentally enough, may be very root of the initial lack of initiative). Here's where CrowdFunder comes in. Currently in beta, CrowdFunder is the creation of Dave Rogers and Joe Pezzillo, two Colorado entrepreneurs who wanted to help people help themselves and their communities. Read on to see how one little site may soon be re-writing the rules for big changes.

Joshspear.com: What are your personal backgrounds?

Joe Pezzillo: Dave was a publisher of The Onion in Colorado for a decade until Onion, Inc. bought them out. I worked at the secret Apple lab here in Boulder back in the 90's, and started one of the first and most popular Internet radio companies during Web 1.0. We both spent most of the last year with IV bags of espresso plugged into our arms as we worked on another startup that never made it over the verge of greatness… READ MORE…

Micro-lending has been in the news a lot lately, since Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work in the field and wrote a book about it, called Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. I’m no expert, but the idea seems simple: people below poverty lines don’t just need more food rations dropped from helicopters; they need a way to produce and buy food for themselves. Micro-loans are small amounts of money given to burgeoning entrepreneurs in developing countries to help them start or expand successful businesses. A successful business — in theory at least — being the end of that individual’s poverty and the start of a viable economy in his or her area. It’s a way to circumvent the often bureaucratic and ineffective foreign aid packages that most developed nations favor and to help poor people directly.

Now here’s where Kiva.org comes in. Kiva takes the micro-lending idea and combines it with the democratizing power of the internet to allow you (or me, or the guy reading this over your shoulder) to connect with entrepreneurs in the third world and give them a loan. You can search Kiva’s website to find a businessman or woman that you want to support, and, as time goes by, you can see the impact that your loan has made on your business partner’s life. Your $25 might do more than buy food for a week. It could supply someone with a lifelong profession. Learn more about Kiva in the New York Times, Newsweek (last item) and NPR.

–Dan Steckenberg

A few years ago when Discover introduced their mini credit card that was meant to be attached to your key chain and flipped out at the register, I yawned. When American Express recently unveiled their Butterfly card, I was mildly interested. What really has me excited though, is the new card designed by Roger Arquer. It combined a money clip with a credit card so you can carry your cash and plastic in one simple package. A year ago, I moved away from the bulky, carry-it-all wallet, and on to a minimalistic approach (mostly with the help of M-A-K-R). Just a concept at this point, I hope this card makes it into production soon!

Via SciFi.com

I believe that everyone is an expert in at least one subject. The common problem is that it’s not always easy to leverage your knowledge in the form of advice and make money from it. Well that problem is all but extinct now thanks to this brand new service called Ether, which makes it easy to sell what you say. When you sign up for Ether, you get a free Ether Phone Number that you configure to forward calls to your actual home or cell phone. You then set your rate, which can be on an hourly basis or flat fee. Next, you set the hours that you are willing to take calls, so you don’t get a call in the middle of the night. The great thing about Ether is that you can put your Ether Phone Number anywhere – on your website, business card, blog, whatever! Ether’s commission for Beta sign-ups is currently 10% and there are no setup, connection, or monthly fees. Sign up now and start makin that money.